If you listened to Lane Kiffin or Matt Barkley last year, USC’s strength was its team leadership.

But this year’s Trojans make it clear they do not want to make the same leadership mistakes of a season ago.

“Once we took our second loss, we knew that’s it for the national championship,’’ star receiver Marqise Lee said. “But if we do have a loss this year, we’ll stay together as a team.”

Quarterback Max Wittek said the team relied too much on its big-name players last year.

“I think there’s a different feel in togetherness now,” Wittek said. “We’re a lot more united. Some of us had a tendency with so many highly touted players to wait for someone to make a play.

“There was too much passivity.”

It also figures that a loss will not be as devastating to USC this year because the Trojans are ranked No. 24 in the coaches’ poll. Last year USC was ranked No. 1.

Quarterback derby

None of USC’s quarterbacks enjoyed much success Sunday with freshman Max Browne throwing three interceptions and Cody Kessler one. The defense dominated the practice, which is normal for the start of training camp.

Even with his interceptions, Browne said he believes he has a realistic chance to win the starting job.

“In the spring, the biggest thing I focused on was just getting the play in the huddle right,” Browne said. “Before everything was spinning for me but now it’s slowing down.”

Kiffin said it was too soon to determine much about the quarterback position.

“We didn’t really take care of the ball very well (Sunday),” he said.

Lee said he could probably pick a starting quarterback next week but then gave himself some leeway.

“If Kiffin can’t get it (that quickly), I can’t get it either,” he said.

Tailback standouts

After two days, Kiffin mentioned freshman Justin Davis and sophomore Tre Madden as players who stood out at tailback.

Shaw looks like a safety

It appeared like safety Josh Shaw would also play cornerback because of the Trojans’ weakness at that position but Kiffin said he wants to keep Shaw at safety. It will also be harder to move Shaw now because he bulked up over the summer to play safety.